Family Gift Idea - Calendars!

December is here which means so many things! Three weeks to...
- complete report cards
- meet with all my parent during conference week
- incorporate some winter stuff into the curriculum
- create gifts for the parents

Well, week one is almost over. My report cards are done. Conference week is next week so we have minimum days the entire week. Then the last week before winter break we have a field trip. So time to cram everything else in! :)

First things first, we need to make something to use as a gift for the holidays. I like the idea of calendars because that can be used for a whole year. Last year, as a last minute idea (like literally, during the last week before winter break), I quickly took a piece of artwork the class created, printed out a template of the entire calendar year, glued both on black construction paper, and laminated it. They came out super cute!

Of course, I want to make calendars again. But this time, I was smart and started thinking about them earlier! :) We will be using the same piece of artwork (more on that to come) but this time we'll have monthly templates instead of a full year on one page. I surfed the internet for some monthly calendar templates but didn't find one that I liked so ended up making my own.

Click on the image to check it out and download for free!

Now, the artwork. Can you tell who that little mouse is? If you guessed Frederick the mouse, you are correct! Every year, the first grade circuit arranges for docents from our local Art and Science center to come to our classes and lead them in some art lessons. These art lessons are all based on some artist's artwork. In this particular lesson, we looked at Leo Leonini's work in his book Frederick. So the class mimicked his work and created their own Fredericks! They always turn out really cute. Perfect for calendars. :)

Hope you like the calendar template! Please leave a comment if you download it. It would be nice to know how many people have been interested in my work. :)

UPDATE. Did a test run with a student who is gone for the rest of the month. Here is this year's final product! So cute!